Can You Keep A Secret?
by GhostWhispererJimel
Summary: Brayden Scott thinks he saw something terrifying. When he goes to his mom and asks her to keep what he saw secret, she promises to do so, but doesn't believe what he's saying until she sees it herself.
1. It's A Secret

**Author's note: Hey guys! Here I am with a BRAND NEW story! I decided to write this story because I haven't really written a very unconventional story line yet. I know that a lot of people LOVE my first Brucas story, so I figured I'd add this to the list. I know that this is kinda a hard concept to grasp and actually appreciate, because it does deal with some intense stuff. I heard an unbelievably sad song and came up with the idea to write this. Please don't bash me for the story line, because I really wanna see where I can go with this. Anyway, let me know what you all think about it!**

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><p><strong>Chapter One:<strong>

"Mommy, can you keep a secret?" Little Brayden asked with the sweetest innocence. He stood in the doorway, rubbing his eyes, waiting for me to answer his question. Brayden was only six at the time. I had him in high school, out of wedlock with Lucas. He was great to me and Brayden when I first got pregnant. By the time Brayden was two, Lucas and I had gotten married just a month before having our second child, Emilyne. We got married at a very young age, and that isn't easy, as one can imagine. Right after Emilyne was born, my company sky-rocketed. Lucas's career wasn't going quite as well so he stayed home full time to watch the kids and take care of them. When Brayden hit five and Emilyne was three, Lucas and I brought Aiden into the world. He was just over one year old when Brayden asked me a question I would never forget. "Mommy?" He repeated.

"What sweetie?" I asked, coming out of a daze.

"I need to tell you something." He said, inching toward me. I nodded and stood up from the baby rocker to put Aiden in his crib. It was well over 3am. I sat back down in the chair and put Brayden in my lap.

"Okay. What do you need to tell mommy?"

"It's a secret." He shrunk. He wouldn't look at me; I knew something was wrong.

"What kind of secret?"

"A bad one."

"Did you do something bad?" He didn't answer. "Mommy won't be mad with you, I promise."

"_I_ didn't do anything."

"Well, what is it then?" Brayden still wouldn't tell me what was wrong. I turned him around and looked at him sweetly. "Baby, you can tell me. What is it? I promise I won't tell."

"You promise?"

"Yeah."

"Okay..." Brayden swallowed hard. I wanted him to tell me so badly what was happening, but I would later regret wanting to know. "Daddy got mad at Emmy and he started yelling at her."

"What'd your sister do that made him mad?"

"Nothing. She didn't do anything and he yelled at her. His face got really, really red." I couldn't understand what the issue was. I was thinking that maybe Brayden didn't know the whole story. There had to have been something missing because Brayden's face suddenly grew frightened. "And then daddy hit Emmy!" For some reason, I tooke a second to note the time- 3:26. Brayden hasn't been in the room for even two minutes before I heard the news.

"Did daddy spank Emmy?" I asked, praying to God what Brayden was saying wasn't true.

"No. He hit her. Right here!" He said, gesturing to his lip. I swallowed hard and looked back at Brayden. "Emmy was crying real bad and daddy just left the house."

"When was this, buddy?"

"This morning." It never occured to me that Emilyne had been hurt all day. I was working all day and hadn't seen her. Just once to kiss her goodnight, but she was already asleep.

"Mommy's gonna take care of it, okay, buddy?" It wasn't something I planned on taking care of, but somebody had to. Brayden had to have seen wrong, he had to. Whatever happened, I was determined to get the bottom of it. I kissed Brayden on the cheek and watched him walk out of the room. I tucked him into the bed and waited until he was fast asleep before checking on Emilyne. I sat down on the edge of her bed and watched my little girl sleep. I brushed her dark hair out of her face and was horrified to find a large bruise on her face, just below her lip. But still... maybe she hit her lip on the furniture. She's a very active child and she runs around a lot. She's bound to get hurt because she's a kid. That must've been what happened. There was no way my husband ever laid a hand on my kids... right? I placed my finger against the bruise, hoping she wouldn't stir in her sleep. I caressed her cheek and smiled as she opened her eyes. They opened very slowly until she caugh sight of me. She sat up, quickly, in bed.

"Mommy, you're home!" She shouted, throwing her arms around my neck.

"Shh... your brother's sleeping." I chuckled, placing my finger over her lips to quiet her. I found this is as a perfect opportunity to find out what was going on. "Sweeite, what happened?" I asked, pretending this was the first I had known about the bruise. "What's this from?"

"I fell." She told me. Nothing less, nothing more.

"You fell?"

"I was playing and I fell." She smiled.

"Oh... Did... did daddy yell at you today?" She nodded her head.

"I made a mess with my toys and he got mad."

"And then... after daddy left is when you fell?"

"...Before. Because the toys were on the ground and I didn't clean up."

"Oh okay." I looked down the hall as I saw Lucas walk down the hall. "Go back to sleep, okay, baby?" She nodded her hand and kissed me on the cheek before laying back down. If I had to figure out what happened, I needed to get all sides of this story. I followed Lucas to the garge where he started working on his car. "Hey."

"Hey." He replied, barely looking at me. "What's up? Couldn't sleep?"

"No, I just got home. You?"

"Nah... I was too excited about working on the car."

"It's gonna be great when it's finished, babe."

"I hope so... Kids asleep?"

"Yep. But uh... I saw Emilyne's face, she hit her lips or something?"

"Ooh, yeah I had to put ice on that. She was running around all over the place and she tripped all over her toys."

"Yeah... Brayden said you yelled at her though?"

"Uh... yeah." He looked ashamed as he said that. He stopped working on the car and turned to me. "I kinda blew up at her a little. I just had a bad day. I told that girl a thousand times not to leave her toys lying around. I shouldn't have yelled at her, though... I-I should apologize to her, she's still just a kid."

"No, no, that's okay. I don't think she's mad at you. You can tell her tomorrow." I smiled at him, realizing nothing really happened. I stopped to look at him for a minute.

"You okay?" He asked, realizing I was in a daze.

"Yeah. Yeah, I'm just.. so happy to have this family. Everything about it is perfect." I smiled, walked up to Lucas and kissed him. "Come to bed with me. The car can wait." I pulled his arm and walked with him to our bedroom. We were... a little louder than we should have been with kids in the house, but afterwords I couldn't sleep. I spent all night thinking... What was it that Brayden saw?

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><p><strong>Author's note: Interested or not? I want to know if I should keep this one going. Because I do have some pretty cool ideas with this story. Let me know what you think? End it now, or keep going? (If I keep this going, I will still update other stories as well) Thanks for reading!<strong>


	2. But I Saw It

**Author's note: So, I didn't get a whole lot of reviews for this story during the first chapter, but it's not so bad. Could've been worse. I don't get how my first Brucas story got so many reviews and this one isn't. Maybe because they knew Brooke was having a kid in the other one? In this one, she has THREE kids and Brucas is married. XD Oh, but it's okay. I kinda like writing this story. If you read my newest chapter for "Something's Gotta Give" you will find out that I have Christmas on the brain. I can't help it. It's too amazing. Anyway, thought I'd give this story a little more time before calling it quits. I don't have a whole lot planned for it, but I could take it somewhere. Anyway, here's the next chapter.**

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><p><strong>CHAPTER 2:<strong>

"Mommy's home!" I heard Brayden shout as he bounded down the stairs. He ran a good two feet before latching onto my leg. "I love you mommy." He said as I set my bags down on the floor. "What's that mommy?" He said, reaching into one of my bags. I grabbed his tiny wrist and pulled it out of the bag.

"They're Christmas presents." I smiled.

"But I though Santa brings the presents on Christmas." He said, pouting his lip a little. I got down to his level and held his face in my hand.

"Well, buddy, Santa's really busy this year." I looked up and saw Lucas walk in behind Brayden. "I was just helping him out this time around."

"You got the presents from Santa?" He shouted. "You met him?" He cheered, jumping up and down.

"Yeah. All parents have met Santa at some point."

"Can I meet him?"

"No, buddy, sorry. It ruins the Christmas magic. Now, I'd find a way to let you meet him, but it isn't really fair to the kids who have parents that won't let them meet him, right?"

"Yeah... I guess."

"But, on the bright side, as soon as you become a parent and have kids of your own, you'll get to see him every year." Lucas shook his head as he heard our conversation. I looked up at him and gave him a look.

"Hey, bud." Lucas said, stepping into our conversation. "You ready to learn how to ride a bike?"

"Yeah!" He bounced up. "Can we do it now?"

"Sure. Your bike's in the garage." Brayden cheered and squealed as he ran toward the garage. Lucas had bought early Christmas gifts for the whole family. It was so sweet of him. I stood up and gave Lucas a kiss. "Any particular reason why the kid still believes in Santa Claus?"

"Lucas, he's six. He deserves to be a kid."

"Doesn't mean we have to lie to him."

"Why are you so bitter about Christmas?"

"I'm not. I just don't think we should tell the boy fairytales."

"It's not a fairytale, Lucas. It's part of childhood."

"Whatever you say. I'm gonna help him with that bike. You got dinner handled?"

"Sure. Oh, I've got Emilyne and Aiden handled too." I said sarcastically.

"Great, thanks babe." He said, while walking out the door. I sighed and chuckled a little before setting my bags on the couch and walking into the kitchen. As I opened the fridge, I felt tiny hands press against my calves. I turned around and saw Aiden, holding onto me. I smiled and picked him up off the ground.

"Hey little man! Oh, you look tired! Are you tired?"

"Yeah." He mumbled, rubbing his eyes.

"You need a diaper change don't you? Don't you?" I took him upstairs, passing Emilyn'es room on the way to the nursery. I stopped in the doorway as she slowly awoke from her nap.

"Mommy, you're home." She yawned. "It's early." She crawled out of bed and gave me a hug. I took her hand and walked with her into the nursery.

"Santa let me go home from work early."

"Why?"

"Because it's almost Christmas. And, hey, speaking of gifts, you wanna watch your daddy teach Brayden how to ride a bike?"

"Yeah!" She got really excited and ran down the stairs when I told her they were outside already. I changed the baby and took him downstairs with me as I started cooking dinner. About twenty minutes later, I head the door swing open and saw Emilyne run up to her room in tears. Lucas came in behind her with an angry look and Brayden followed, running up to his room, terrified.

"What happened?" I asked as Lucas slammed the door shut.

"I told that girl- I told her no." He said, clenching his teeth. I asked what happened again. "Emilyne wanted to ride the bike and I told her no because it was too big for her and that she'd get hurt. She kept asking me and asking me. I turned around for one minute and she fell off the bike!" He yelled, flailing his arms in the air.

"She got hurt?" I asked, ready to dash up the stairs to check on her.

"She's fine." He said, stopping me. "Just a little scrape." I ignored his response and went to check on her anyway. It wasn't that bad. Just a small scrape on the thigh. I had her sit on the bathroom sink while I cleaned her wound.

"You sure you're okay, baby girl?"

"I'm okay."

"You sure?"

"Yeah."

"So what happened out there?" Emilyne darted her eyes across the room when I asked that.

"I wanted to ride the bike and daddy told me no, but I got on anyway and fell."

"Oh..."

"Daddy says I don't listen."

"Oh, that's okay, baby... don't worry about it." I set her down and kissed her cheek. "Go play." I smiled. She smiled back and went to her room to play. I had finished cleaning her up and then went to check on Brayden. He was lying on his bed, facing his window. I sat down next to him and rubbed his hair. "Hey buddy. You okay?" He shook his head. "Did what happened to Emmy scared you?"

He shook his head and sat up in bed. "No... Daddy scared me."

"Why? What'd daddy do?" He sighed and looked into his lap.

"Emmy wanted to ride the bike and daddy told her no, but she got on anyway and daddy pushed her off."

"No, Daddy said Emmy fell off the bike."

"No! He pushed her!"

"Buddy, I don't think so."

"But I saw it!" He whined.

"Brayden." I said, sternly. "That's enough, okay?"

"But mommy-"

"No... that's enough." He looked at me with tears in his eyes, frowning. I didn't realize what I was saying to him was making him so upset. "Go wash up for dinner." He closed his eyes tight as he ran into the bathroom. I couldn't understand it. That was the second time that he told me that Lucas had hurt Emilyne. I didn't understand why Lucas and Emilyne always had the same story and Brayden always told me a different one. There was something going on, I knew there was. But what?

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><p><strong>Author's note: I realize I'm not being very suspenseful with this story, but that's kinda the point. lol, hope you enjoyed it. Review please!<strong>


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